Amy, I heard AI models aren’t as good at answering questions in Spanish as they are in English. Why is that?

Yeah, that’s a big issue. The main reason is that AI models are trained on more English data, so they understand and perform better in English.

So, it’s like the models are more fluent in English than in Spanish?

Exactly. Think of it this way: if someone learns Spanish for only a few months but speaks English all their life, they’ll be better at English, right? It’s similar for AI.

But why can’t they just train AI models equally in all languages?

It’s hard to do that. There’s less high-quality data available in Spanish and other languages, so the models end up less accurate.

Wow, that doesn’t sound fair. People who don’t speak English could get worse answers.

Yeah, and that’s the problem. It’s not just about translation; sometimes the answers in Spanish are completely different and even incorrect.

Like what? Do you have an example?

Sure. When asked the same question in both languages, models sometimes give correct U.S. election information in English but mention irrelevant details about Latin America in Spanish.

Whoa, that’s a huge mistake. How does that even happen?

It happens because the model might misunderstand the context or draw from less reliable data sources in Spanish.

So, it’s not only bad translation but a real language understanding problem?

Right. And this impacts not just voting info but anything that needs accuracy, like medical advice or legal information.

That sounds serious. Are companies doing anything to fix this?

Some are improving their models, but it’s slow. It takes a lot of resources to balance performance across languages.

Still, isn’t it important for fairness? People should get the same quality of answers no matter the language.

Absolutely. Language disparity can create disadvantages, especially for non-English speakers. That’s why it’s a priority for some AI researchers.

I hope they find a solution soon. Everyone deserves accurate information, no matter what language they use.

Me too. Until then, it’s best to be cautious and double-check information, especially in languages other than English.